My parent's neighbour two doors up is absolutley not a minimalist. Her general waste bin is stuffed to the top so that the red lid sits at a profound angle and white plastic bugs puff out like clouds. Her green waste bin looks like she's stuffed a giant troll into it, with grassy hair overflowing.

My mother is infuriated by the neighbour plus one.

Come bin day, said neighbour puts excess rubbish in my mother's bin if she has no room, which is every bin day. If it's too well stuffed, the garbage truck doesn't manage to empty it, and Mum is stuck with her plastic bags for another week. Mum's more annoyed at her than she is about Trump, which is saying something.

Mum rants and raves every Wednesday about it. She never puts plastic bags in the bin - a bit of newspaper at the bottom to absorb liquids will do, and it takes nothing - nothing! - to rinse out the inside bin. Why use plastic when you don't have to? It just ends up in landfill, she cries, and besides, the council advise not to! For Mum, it's incredibly unfair that she's going to such effort and the neighbour doesn't.

Until the council has a soft rubbish recycling program, soft plastics are out.

My parents have a beautiful house. Everything is in it's place. It's calm, and neat, and tidy. Mum works hard at it. But she does it ethically, responsibly, thoughtfully. She shops at wholefoods and the green grocer so that she avoids plastic in the first place. Every rubber bands around kale wind her up. 'They'll get stuck around the beak of something' she rants. 'I can't bear it!'.

Strawberries and blueberries go into washed and de-labelled gherkin jars. Paper bags of cashews and figs the same. Gherkin jars are just the right size for repurposing.

Her beautiful linen doona covers she dyed for a fresh look rather than buy new ones - in one room, a beautiful burnt orange, and in another, a deep blue.

She isn't adverse to buying new things, just she will really, really think about their longevity and their environmental impact. I'd never call Mum a minimalist per sa - but she absolutely has minimalist values.

Living there, I can't help but be caught up in the drama of the bins. On the day we put out the bins this week I take out the neighbours plastic bagged rubbish and place it back on top of her own overstuffed monstrosity. If it remains uncollected, that's on her. Mum and I plot and plan. Perhaps a label on the bin that says 'no plastic bags in here please', or I'd dump the bag over her freaking fence.

I don't think any of it will help. Some people are just maximalist by nature.

**Sugargum drive isn't the real name of my parent's street, but it sounded catchy for the title.